The future of the Cape Town government will be decided in talks on Wednesday (17 January 2007), the city's executive mayor, Helen Zille, said. "As this morning dawns, I am at the head of a minority government in Cape Town, which is never a comfortable place to be," she told SAfm presenter John Perlman.

A Pretoria woman is fighting for her life in hospital after she was allegedly assaulted by Sunnyside police officers, the Pretoria News reported on Wednesday (15 January 2007).

Students Partnership Worldwide (SPW), a youth-led international development agency, is in the process of dramatically increasing its operations and impact. Currently SPW has offices in Australia, India, Nepal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, UK, USA, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

The first day of school could be grim for a bunch of Grade 1 pupils whose classrooms were ransacked and wrecked days before the start of term. Teachers and governing body members at Greenlands Primary School in Bishop Lavis looked hopelessly yesterday (15 January 2007) at what they estimate to be R60 000 in damage.

The ANC has expressed hope that convicted fraudster Tony Yengeni still has an important role to play in rebuilding South Africa. The ANC’s statement followed widespread condemnation of the early release from prison on Monday of the disgraced former ANC Chief Whip. Yengeni was released on parole after completing a 20-week stint of his four-year prison term.

Africa's premier air carrier, South African Airways (SAA), is fighting to regain its credibility by penalising its officials indicted in a sex scandal. With claims of a sex scandal among the carrier's top management, SAA is degenerating into a haven for sex pests such as rape and harassment, critics say.

An estimated 10,000 educators in South Africa are expected to die of HIV/AIDS within the next two years if there is no plan to quickly give anti-retroviral drugs to all needy educators, according to opposition reports. The ANC government is again criticised for not taking the AIDS pandemic seriously.

Several publications on Tuesday (16 January 2007) expressed fears that the current restructuring of the South African Police Service (SAPS) will severely limit the media's ability to access information.

Pressure is mounting on President Thabo Mbeki to establish a judicial commission of inquiry into allegations of corruption in the multibillion-rand arms deal, following weekend reports that the British Serious Fraud Office is investigating kickbacks paid to a former defence ministry official.

Underperforming schools in Gauteng and the Free State will remain open, the provincial education departments said on Tuesday (9 January 2007). The [provincial minister] is not closing any schools for non-performance," said the Gauteng education department spokesperson Mbela Phetlhe.

Oprah Winfrey could be doing so much more to improve girls' education, said ActionAid after the TV star opened a school for poor girls in South Africa this week. Winfrey used $40 million of her own money to launch the school while the following day Gordon Brown re-iterated his promise of $15 billion aid, promising to make universal primary education a key foreign policy goal.

Police on Wednesday (10 January 2007) recovered the body of a 13-year-old girl who was apparently raped and then thrown over a cliff in Durban's Molweni area. The police search-and-rescue unit had to retrieve Londi Mdunge's body, which had fallen nearly 60m down a cliff overlooking the Inanda Dam.

One of the biggest threats facing democracy in South Africa is corruption, the South African Communist Party (SACP) said on Wednesday (27 December 2006). "Apart from HIV/Aids, joblessness and poverty, the single biggest threat facing our democracy is growing corruption in both the public and private sectors," said SACP president Blade Nzimande in the party's new year message.

Marine and coastal management scientists are investigating the cause of death of millions of larval crabs that washed up along the Table Bay coastline for the past two weeks. The death of the tiny crabs is, at this stage, not thought to be related to the death of more than 80 tons of fish in Rietvlei, near Table View, according to city spokesman Pieter Cronje.

“Growing up as a lesbian woman in South Africa is not easy," Lindiwe Radebe says. "It is a country that is ruled by homophobia and where we are not protected. I know this because I have been assaulted because of my sexual orientation." Her story reads like a crime novel.

Mpho is a 24 year old lesbian identified woman who was raped last October and as a result is now HIV+. She discovered she was positive in April this year and started on ARVs in August because her CD4 count was very low at 90. Like many women in a similar position in South Africa, Mpho is struggling not only with additional medical complications such as diabetes and thyroid problems but the side affect of the drugs, the stigma and having to find the sheer mental will to get through each day. In this interview she talks about how being raped and contracting HIV has impacted on her life. She also discusses her dreams for the future of being a photo journalist and living her life.

A total of 2 296 cases of alleged corruption have been reported to the national anti-corruption hotline (NACH) since its inception in September 2004, the National Anti-Corruption Forum (NACF) said on Tuesday (5 December 2006).

South Africa's largest property group-Pam Golding Properties (PGP) will enter the East African market beginning early next year. PGP chief executive officer Mr. Andrew Golding told Business Week from Cape Town, South Africa last week that the group had highlighted Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Senegal, Angola, Zambia, Lesotho, Morocco, Rwanda, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and the rest of Africa as important growth areas.

Former ambassador Norman Mashabane is guilty of sexual harassment, the Pretoria High Court found on Friday (1 December 2006). More than three years after Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma overturned a guilty verdict against Mashabane, the court decided otherwise.

The South African Council of Churches (SACC) is "deeply disturbed" by a traditional healer's claim that 500 HIV-positive people have been cured with African herbs, the SACC said on Wednesday (29 November 2006). "Herbs may play an important role in treating opportunistic infections, but to make claims of curing Aids without hard scientific evidence is irresponsible, misleading and mischievous," said SACC general secretary Eddie Makue.